Superstrings II : [program]

SUPERSTRINGS I

February 2, 1991

Jane Mallett Theatre
St. Lawrence Centre
for the Arts
Toronto

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THE ESPRIT ORCHESTRA
Alex Pauk
Music Director and Conductor

SUPERSTRINGS I
February 2, 1991
Jane Mallett Theatre

Featured Artist
FUJIKO IMAJISHI - Violin

PROGRAMME

SUPERSTRINGS I

Iridescence * Chris Harman (Canada)
A Way ALonell * Toru Takemitsu (Japan)
INTERMISSION (20 minutes)

Grand Bamboula ** Charles Wuorinen (U.S.A.)

Nostalghia ** Toru Takemitsu (Japan)

Zipangu Claude Vivier (Canada)

* ‘Toronto Premiere
** Canadian Premiere

Tonight's performance is being recorded by the CBC for broadcast on
February 10, at 9:05 p.m. on 7wo New Hours, 94.1 on the FM dial.

All programmes are subject to change without notice.

IRIDESCENCE - composer's note

The idea of Zridescence, in addition to its emphasis on timbre and texture as
suggested by the title, is to be universally appealing on a sensual level, not only in
the nature of the sound, but through structure also. What would be required to
fill this criterion is a form which would appear simple enough for a listener to
‘float’ into, yet internally complex enough to meet the demands inherent in a
single movement piece lasting approximately twelve minutes. The twelve
minutes are divided into two units of time. In the first section, ideas are
developed very little, and the intensity of dynamics rises and falls continually
within a limited range so as to minimize the direction of the music at this early
stage. In addition, each idea is clearly marked, occupying a space of its own as
opposed to the scheme of the second section where ideas lead one into another in
a practically uninterrupted chain of events. In the second section, the sounds
emerge out of nothingness and begin one large ascension of tension in which the
lengths of the ideas gradually decrease until the climax is reached amidst an
onslaught of action. At this peak, the longest idea of all begins triple fortissimo
and gradually diminishes to nothing over a very long period of time. When
nothing is left, one final massive cluster explodes and dies away into splinters of
sound, the same splinters which were the foundation for the rest of the musical
ideas in the piece.

CHRIS PAUL HARMAN

Chris Paul Harman was born in Toronto in 1970, where he studied classical
guitar, cello, and electronic music at the Royal Conservatory of Music with
Barton Wigg, Alan Stellings, and Wes Wragett respectively. His music has been
performed in Ontario and Quebec by the UART MIDI Ensemble, the Composers’
Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Radio-Canada. In addition, Mr.
Harman has been commissioned by the Festival of Sound in Parry Sound, and by
the guitarist William Beauvais, for himself Steve Wingfield, and the Evergreen
Club Gamelon Ensemble in Toronto. Future performances include premieres by
Continuum in Toronto, and by the Societe de Musique Contemporaine du Quebec
in Montreal. |

In 1986, Mr. Harman was a finalist in the CBC National Radio Competition for
Young Composers, and was the Grand Prize winner in the same competition in
1990. In addition, his work, ridescence, received first prize in the ’Works for
Strings’ category at that competition.

2/PROGRAMME NOTES

CHRIS PAUL HARMAN/3

A WAY A LONE II - composer's note

A way a lone was composed in 1981 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the
Tokyo Quartet, and premiered at Carnegie Hall in February of the same year.

A way a lone I, Takemitsu’s string orchestra version of the same piece was
arranged soon afterward, and was first performed by the Sapporo Symphony
Orchestra in June of 1982.

The title ’a way a lone’ is a coinage derived from a passage from James Joyce’s
novel Finnegan's Wake. Its image is, according to the composer, the movement
of water when the river Liffey in Dublin pours itself into the fatherly sea, as
Joyce expresses it, and when many other streams join it, each running with its
own cry of joy, and also the ’water’ which , even after flowing offshore, still
continues to move, transfiguring itself into various tidal currents.

NOSTALGHIA - composer's note

The title Nostalghia in the Italian language derives from that of a motion picture
directed by the Soviet film director, Andrei Tarkovskij, who met with an
untimely death in 1986 in Paris, his political refuge. And this music was written
as a reminiscence of Tarkovskij.

A simple and pathetic melody, introduced by the solo violin, is dominant
throughout the music. Occasionally, the fractionalized string orchestra creates
the feeling of water and mist, which is a characteristic image in films directed by
Tarkovskij, and yet the music as a whole remains wrapped in a gentle and elegiac
sentiment.

Nostalghia was commissioned by the Scottish Post Office for Sir Yehudi
Menuhin.

TORU TAKEMITSU

Toru Takemitsu is the best-known of contemporary Japanese composers - a
master of both Eastern and Western musical traditions. He has played a
significant role in bringing new western trends into Japanese musical life through
his work as an organizer of concerts and artistic events. Simultaneously, over the
last twenty years he has helped to make the Oriental aesthetic known worldwide
through his concert and film music. Although he studied under Yasuji Kiyose,
Takemitsu is primarily self-taught.

4/PROGRAMME NOTES

Takemitsu’s range and volume of work bespeak a lifelong commitment to
exploration and discovery. In addition to his 40+ orchestral works, he has written
works for chamber ensemble, solo instrument, choir, theatre and dance, and he
seems equally at home with either Japanese or Western instruments. His muse has
taken him through most of the experimental schools of composition of the past
four decades.

Takemitsu remains a prominent figure in contemporary music. His works have
been performed by orchestras on four continents. His awards include the Prix
Italia, the Otaka Prize for top orchestral work of the year in Japan, the Prix
International Maurice Ravel, the Asahi Prize, and the Mobil Music Prize. He has
lectured at the Universities of Southern California at San Diego, Harvard
University, the University of Boston and Yale University.

TORU TAKEMITSU/5

GRAND BAMBOULA - composer's note

Grand Bamboula exhibits an angular melodic behaviour, and a timbrel approach
to composing. The work is composed in a variant of Wuorinen’s
characteristically more intellectual style.

The work bears no direct relation to the Bamboula, a form of Creole dance, but
the title is used for what the sound of its words evokes. Grand Bamboula,
written in 1970 and first performed in 1972 at the University of Iowa, is an
annunciatory, extroverted, celebratory and unambiguous work.

The events and pace of the piece are determined by translating the pitch intervals
of the composition’s 12-tone set into time intervals - lengths that separate ’events’
from each other. These events are motivic; they are short musical gestures,
phrases, textures.

After completing this piece, Wuorinen went on to write other ’Bamboula’ works
more directly linked to the actual dance - most notably a piece for full orchestra
entitled Bamboula Beach.

CHARLES WUORINEN

Charles Wuorinen has composed nearly 140 works of all genres, and he has also
been active as a pianist, conductor, teacher, and writer.

At the age of sixteen, he won the New York Philharmonic Young Composers’
Award, and thus began a career filled with many such accolades, including a
Pulitzer Prize, four BMI Awards to Student Composers, two Guggenheim
Fellowships, the Arts and Letters Award of the Finlandia Foundation, two Lili
Boulanger Memorial Awards, and three National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowships.

Mr. Wuorinen holds degrees from Columbia University, and an Honorary
Doctorate from Jersey City State College. In addition, he has taught at Columbia,
Princeton, the New England Conservatory, the Universities of Iowa and South
Florida, and the Manhattan School of Music.

6/PROGRAMME NOTES

CHARLES WUORINEN/7

ZIP AN G U - composer's note

Zipangu was commissioned by New Music Concerts to be performed by two
groups of strings: on the one hand, six violins and on the other, one violin, three
violas, two cellos and one double bass.

Vivier wrote: "Zipangu was the name given to Japan during the time of Marco
Polo. Building around the melody, I explore different aspects of "colour" in this
piece. I have tried to veil my harmonic structures by using different bow
techniques. A colourful sound is obtained by applying exaggerated bow pressure
on the strings as opposed to pure harmonics when returning to normal technique.
In this way melody becomes "colour" (chords), grows lighter and slowly returns as
though purified and solitary."

The melody of which Vivier speaks is always present in the work. It is clearly
expressed at both the beginning and the end of the piece, but undergoes all sorts
of transformations throughout. In one of the most beautiful passages we hear a
solo violin playing a very fanciful air against a texture made up entirely of
harmonics and in which we recognize the basic harmony and its harmonization. It
is a work which towards its end achieves a deeply moving lyricism in a grave and
somber passage.

CLAUDE VIVIER orn 1943, Died 1983)

Claude Vivier studied composition with Gilles Tremblay and piano with Irving
Heller at the conservatory in Montreal. He subsequently went to Europe to study
composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen, and electronic music with Gottfried
Michael Koenig and Hans Ulrich Humpert. He obtained several grants from the
Canada Council and was named "Composer of the Year" by the Canadian Music
Council in 1981.

The two years of study with Stockhausen revealed a musical personality with a
predilection for monody and for writing for the voice (solo and choral), but also
began to show the importance Vivier was to place on texts and unveiled a style of
writing that was to stray progressively farther from the usual contemporary
music trends to become more and more personal and transparent. In 1977, Vivier
undertook a journey to Asia and the Middle Hast; the great variety of musical
influences he received had the effect, paradoxically, of purifying his own musical
expression. Melody gradually occupied a foremost position in his works and his
concept of music as being an integral part of daily life continued.

8/PROGRAMME NOTES

After a few years of teaching in Montreal, Vivier devoted his time entirely to
composition. He was writing a piece prophetically titled Do you believe in the
immortality of the soul when he died in Paris on March 7, 1983. He left some
forty works characterized by one of the most personal and expressive styles in
the evolution of Canadian music.

; CLAUDE VIVIER/9

Fujiko Imajishi, Esprit’s Concertmistress since February of 1985, is one of
Canada’s foremost string players. Born in Tokyo, she began her musical studies
in that city’s Toho Gakuen School of Music. She then moved to Canada to
continue her training with Lorand Fenyves at the University of Toronto. In
addition, Ms. Imajishi has also studied with Ruggiero Ricci at Shawnigan Lake
(B.C.), Franko Gulli at Indiana University, and with the Hungarian Quartet at the
Banff School in Alberta.

Following four years as a performer in the Toronto Symphony, Ms. Imajishi
became the concertmistress for the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. Her
special knowledge and skills in the field of new music make her an important
asset to The Esprit Orchestra, and places her in great demand as a freelance
player on Toronto’s studio scene.

10/FUJIKO IMAJISHI

————_—_——__] _——______

The Principal Clarinet Chair is sponsored by
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makers of the world's finest clarinets
Available in fine music stores.

WITH HOST % SUNDAYS AT 9:05 PM
RICHARD PAUL ¥e (9:35 IN NEWFOUNDLAND)

CBC Stereo

Photo - Linda Corbett

Alex Pauk has been a leading proponent of new music in Canada since 1971.
After graduating from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music in 1970, he
participated in the Ontario Arts Council’s Conductors’ Workshop for two years,
and did further work at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo.

Both as a composer and a conductor, Mr. Pauk has been deeply involved with
creating new music. As a founding member of such groups as Arraymusic and
Days Months and Years to Come, he developed the skills and philosophy which
lead to his founding The Esprit Orchestra as a primary force in the presentation
of new Canadian music for orchestra.

Mr. Pauk’s own orchestral compositions are widely performed. His works include
concert music, film scores, radiophonic montages and music theatre pieces.
Through his world-wide travels he not only brings diverse influences to his own
creations, but is also able to search out music by foreign composers to present to
Canadian audiences. Mr. Pauk has recently been commissioned to write a work
for electronic orchestra, to be premiered next season by New Music Concerts. At
present, Mr. Pauk lives im his native Toronto and freelances as a composer and
conductor in addition to being the Music Director of The Esprit Orchestra.

12/ALEX PAUK —-

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THE ESPRIT ORCHESTRA

February 2, 1991
Jane Mallett Theatre
Alex Pauk - Music Director and Conductor

Violin EL Fujiko Imajishi Viola: Douglas Perry
(Esprit Concertmistress) Valerie Kuinka
Carol Fujino Sylvia Lange
Marie Berard Beverley Spotton
Dominique Laplante
Jennifer Saleebey Cello: Paul Widner
Jared Erhardt Elaine Thompson
Joanna Zabrowarna Zoltan Rozsnyai
Nicole Zarry Maurizio Baccante
Violin I: Diane Tait Bass: Roberto Occhipinti
Ron Mah David Young
Jayne Maddison
Paul Zevenhuizen
Yakov Lerner
Janie Kim

* The Principal Clarinet Chair is sponsored by Buffet Crampon.

Honorary Director Maureen Forrester

President Ellen Pennie

Vice President Christina Becker

Secretary Constance Olsheski

Treasurer Jeffrey B. Rintoul

Directors Marilyn Brenzel
Marilyn Field
Paul de Hueck
Alexina Louie
Robert Lundvall
John Pennie
Penny Shore

Music Director

And Conductor Alex Pauk

General Manager Gerard Seguin

The Esprit Orchestra is a member of the Ontario Federation of Symphony Orchestras, the
Association of Canadian Orchestras, and the Toronto Theatre Alliance.

14/THE ESPRIT ORCHESTRA

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THE ESPRIT ORCHESTRA GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES
THE SUPPORT OF THE FOLLOWING:

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16/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

INDIVIDUAL SUPPORTERS

Benefactors of The Esprit Orchestra

Paul de Hueck
Doiron FLP
Marilyn Field
Maria Lui

Patrons of The Esprit Orchestra

Christina Becker
Malca Gillson
Amy & Clair Stewart
Ray Taylor

Members of The Esprit Orchestra

Mr. & Mrs. W.O. North Cooper
John Hill
Linda & Michael Hutcheon
Jean Lyons
Theresa & Stuart Morley
Rosemary & David Partridge
Lonnie Tate
Barbara J. Thompson
David Waterhouse

Friends of The Esprit Orchestra

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Harry Freedman
Phyllis Grosskurth
Jill Humphries
Indal Limited
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Micki Maunsell
Ronald J.C. McQueen
Ellen Pennie
Michael St. Hill
Tom Sheridan
Barbara and John Sutherland
Margaret Van Eerdewijk

INDIVIDUAL SUPPORTERS/17

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Ken Taylor
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William Peden

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18/ST. LAWRENCE CENTRE

a

ESPRIT EXTRAS...

TOWARD A LIVING ART

The Esprit Orchestra offers many exciting educational opportunities through its
TOWARD A LIVING ART programme. This programme guides younger
audiences through both familiar and more challenging musical terrain in a
comprehensive and enjoyable way. Our activities include:

In-class visits by professional Canadian composers;

Special workshops and rehearsals with high school orchestras and The
Esprit Orchestra;

Invitations to attend Esprit’s rehearsals;
Student group rates for all regular Esprit concerts, and
Special afternoon school concerts.

On Tuesday, March 26, following the final performance of its 1990/91 season,
The Esprit Orchestra will hold its first concert for an all-student audience.

The educational event, to be held at Humberside Collegiate Institute Auditorium,
will feature works taken from the last programme of the season, including
Scorpius, Cosmos, and Jn the Garden of Gaea. The concert is open to all
educators and their students, and people wishing to order tickets should contact
the Orchestra directly.

If you are an educator, student or parent, and would like more information about
the TOWARD A LIVING ART programme, please contact the Esprit offices.

COFFEE CHATS

Esprit holds CORFFEE CHATS prior to each concert. These informal gatherings
give members of the public an opportunity to meet composers, musicians, and our
conductor in a musically informative social context. For more information, or to
ensure that you receive an invitation to the next Coffee Chat, please visit our
table in the lobby, or call our office.

The Esprit Orchestra: Chalmers Building, 35 McCaul Street, Suite 410

Toronto, Ontario, MST 1V7
(416) 599-7880 FAX (416) 977-3552

ESPRIT EXTRAS/19

Monday, March 25, 1991
COSMOS

An evening of music inspired by the Heavens.

Sotto il Segno del Sole *
In the Garden of Gaea **
Scorpius **

Cosmos ***

THE SEASON’S NOT OVER!

Anders Eliasson (Sweden)
Andrew MacDonald (Canada)
R. Murray Schafer (Canada)
Alex Pauk (Canada)

THIS VERY SPECIAL CONCERT WILL BE BROADCAST LIVE ON CBC
RADIO - ALONG WITH THE OFFICIAL RELEASE OF ESPRIT’S NEW CD!

Tuesday, March 26, 1991
SCHOOL CONCERT

A special afternoon performance
especially for students. Educators
should contact the Esprit offices
for details.

THE ESPRIT ORCHESTRA
Chalmers Building
35 McCaul Street, Suite 410
Toronto, Ontario
MST 1V7
PHONE: (416) 599-7880
FAX: (416) 977-3552

20/STILL TO COME

%

Canadian Premiere

ei World Premiere of a
work commissioned by
The Esprit Orchestra

ee Toronto Premiere

INVITATION

The Board of Directors
of The Esprit Orchestra

invites you to stay for
complimentary coffee
and meet the performers
in the theatre lobby
after the performance.

"hin